From rxpgnews.com
Court stays CBSE order on fee waiver for girls
Jan 21, 2006 - 8:14:00 PM
New Delhi, Jan 20 (IANS) Delhi High Court Friday stopped a Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) circular directing all schools under it to waive the fees of girls who were the only child of their parents.
The move came on a petition filed by the minority institution Mount Carmel School here, which said the October 2005 circular - applicable to girls from Class 6 onwards - violated Article 30 of the constitution.
Staying the circular's implementation, judge Vikramjit Sen sought responses from the CBSE, the central government and the director of education of the Delhi government. It asked them to file their replies within four weeks and posted the matter for hearing March 27.
Mount Carmel, through its lawyers Romy Chacko and A.K. Jha, asked that the circular be quashed as, among other things, it violated the constitutional article guaranteeing the right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions.
It said it was a minority educational institution entitled to constitutional protection and argued that the restrictions imposed by the CBSE could not apply to a minority educational institution due to the constitutional protection given to them to fix fees.
The petitioner said the CBSE failed to note the distinction between the right conferred on aided and unaided educational institutions as laid down by the Supreme Court, which had held: "In the case of private unaided institutions, maximum autonomy in the day-to-day administration has to be with the private unaided institutions.
"Bureaucratic or governmental interference in the administration of such an institution will undermine its independence."
Indo-Asian News Service
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